Gangsta Game

When it comes to role-playing games, computer and Internet developers have done by far the best job of giving people a wide variety of different styles and flavors to choose from. But when it comes to playing the bad guy, console games have a stranglehold on most of the good titles. I have to admit that I didn't grow up in anything like what you might call a 'hood.' So don't expect a lot of street jargon out of this white boy. But from time to time my inner thug, deep as he may usually hide, would like to take a couple of spins around the block. Since I'm not much of a console gamer and prefer PC games overall, it was nice when I found the game Mafia wars on Facebook.

If you're into first-person shooters, Mafia wars isn't going to hold much interest for you. It's a text-based RPG that allows you to rise from street thug to Godfather by basically mowing down, shooting up, tearing apart, dominating and in all other ways whipping the crap out of everything in your way. In terms of sheer brutality and the number of weapons, Mafia wars puts everything else to shame. It's almost too bad you don't get to see any of the mayhem that you're creating.

At first glance you might wonder why a mafia wars has 25 million players on Facebook. It seems overly simplistic and not a whole ton of fun for the first 30 minutes or so. But once you start figuring out that you can't just blast everybody right away, and there really are some strategies involved, you began to get hooked. After a few hours you might very well find yourself checking your mafia wars interface every few minutes or so.

Before long, you'll be micromanaging your way through organized crime building just like you might do in real life. You'll be hiring dozens of bodyguards, buying weapons, building armored cars and collecting rent from your tenants all in a single minded quest to reach the top even if it means having to kill everyone in your way. So when you're looking for gangsta game that's free to play and a whole lot of destruction, mafia wars may be just the thing for you.